Hello everyone!

I hope the winter is being kind to you. Here in the extreme South West of the UK, things are briefly looking up after months of rain (since June I think), and more recently snow and ice. Yesterday we were treated to yet more rain and last night it blew a pretty impressive gale as well, but this morning……Sunshine!!!!!!   So Harley and I hit the road!

Not a very epic ride I’m afraid, just sixty miles, but far enough to try out the new toys, as in heated gloves and jacket, not forgetting the Schuberth C3 crash helmet. I’m pleased to report all worked superbly, the heated gear was very nice, though I didn’t need to turn it up very high as the morning was quite warm. The helmet however, is just sublime! It’s a fantastic piece of German manufacturing, flip face, integral sun visor, double glazed visor (honestly!) and as quiet as you like. Comfy too. I’m very happy with it!

The only downside of the morning is that Harley is now plastered in Cornish mud, so I’m off to get out the pressure washer and Zip Wax, see ya in about five hours!

To ride or to ride? That is the question!

Dookes

Hi Gang.

OK, I’ve been rubbish for not updating the blog since we went to the Auvergne in early November! In my defence this is supposed to be about the travels of a Geezer on a Harley… and guess what? With the crap weather since the beginning of time, Harley and I have not ventured out much!

We did have a brief trip to Colin at Thor Motorcycles to fit the new clutch hub that I mentioned earlier in the year. Lovely job team, Harley is much smoother now thanks for the attention to detail.

I managed to slip up to Brum for the Motorcycle Live Exhibition in mid November. Lots of really nice bikes and stuff at the show, including an old friend, Captain America from the Easy Rider film.

The plastic took a bit of a hammering with a new Schuberth bone dome and a nice set of Gerbings heated gloves and jacket. The latter Mrs D has converted into a Christmas present, excellent, thanks darling!

Well here we are at the end of the year. I can’t say I sorry to see the end of 2012, too much pain for one year, too many good people gone too many hard hearted bastards still about !  It’s goodbye to my mother in law, a bonkers larger than life lady who filled any room with her presence! Mrs D’s Uncle Joe, an amazing Polish guy who fought and escaped from the Nazis in Poland, walked across occupied France to Spain, joined the Royal Air Force and took the fight back to Hitler!  Spitfire MkIX, 145 (Polish) Squadron RAF, Tunisia 1943; Made in Memory of Uncle Joe.

On top of that, Mrs Dookes also lost her faithful gun-dog Dabster at the end of summer after a brief fight with bone cancer, just a bummer of a year!

To be fair, there were high points and some of those you good people have shared with me. I can’t dwell on the bad things too much after the freedom and highs of the Alps. We gained more Great Nieces and Nephews as well.

Of course there was also the wonderful Welsh Grand Slam in the Six Nations Championship, did I tell you I was there in Cardiff when we won it? Thought so! Well here’s a reminder!

All that remains now is to wish you all a very Happy New Year, Blwyddyn Newydd Dda. Lets hope it stops raining soon and we can get out and ride!

In the meantime relax with a little bit of Bob Seger and think of me on my Harley as you listen; take it away Bob! Click here

Dookes

Hi Gang!

Just a quick one to say hello, as I’m not on Harley this does not count as an official blog entry.

Mrs Dookes and I are just coming to the end of a splendid ten day break in France. We pootled down the Autoroute to Montluçon, hung a left and ended up in the Allier region. Very rural, very quiet, very food and wine orientated; just what the Doc ordered!

The view from the Gîte.

Also, Clermont Auvergne, great Rugby team, pretty good beer!

France; such a big country, so many different wines, so little time….!

See you all soon. Dookes (& Mrs Dookes)

Thank goodness that bloody awful summer is behind us! Amazing though, as the days get shorter and the temperature starts to drop, we actually get some really nice days to get out and ride.  So last Saturday Harley and I got out and enjoyed life for a few hours.

Just two minutes from Dookes H.Q. I had to stop and grab these pics, what a great place we live in!

On the edge of Bodmin Moor.

I rode from home over to Saltash then followed the A38 back West. Remember how I liked that Mirage Jet on a pole in France last June?  Well this is our own local version!

 It’s an English Electric Lightning, one hot bird, as supersonic as you like. Twin Rolls Royce Avons with reheat, could go to over 80,000ft altitude and out run Concorde for a laugh! Once upon a time a young Dookes dreamed of flying them, until he sat in one and realised that his legs were too long, bang out and leave your knees behind, no thanks, I’ll go heavies instead! Then I got grounded anyway, but that’s another story.  This Cold War warrior is the mascot of Castle Motors/Air Services of Liskeard; as I was passing I grabbed a photo for you folks to see. Neat eh?

Well, after a really nice ride I had to get back to H.Q. and do domestic type jobs, but hey we had a nice sunset!

Off to France on Thursday, not on bike this time…got to give Mrs Dookes some attention!

Ride into the Sunset!

Dookes

Next year Harley Davidson is celebrating it’s 110th Anniversary and will be producing a bunch of “Special” bikes for customers to shell out their hard earned cash at “special” prices!!  Anyway, I received an invite to visit the Plymouth Dealership a couple of weekends ago to preview the new models.  Now as I own a 100th Anniversary Model I’m afraid I couldn’t resist, as a 110 model would make a great stable mate for my existing treasured two wheeled friend…..!!!

I’ve gotta say I was massively disappointed. True, there were some 2013 bikes on show, however all were Sportsters. There was one very nice extremely limited edition (only 200 worldwide), but no big twins and no tourers either!

All was not lost though, as a very good sausage sandwich, brown sauce of course, was enjoyed and a limited edition freebie HD 110 badge was received. Good to see Bodmin Chris as well and allow Service Boss Kirk to prise cash out of my wallet for a few small spares. Oh yes, I did ride Harley there as well!

II guess you could pin this one on me!!!!

Hello again everybody!

More apologies for the lack of posts, I’ve been very busy dealing with the aftermath of the grain harvest…but there is now light at the end of the tunnel! You all know how much I hate riding in tunnels as well!!!

I haven’t had any time for any pleasure rides during the last couple of months and have had to be content with commuting on Harley when I could. There has been something bothering me though…

Just before I went to France in June as part of the service I changed Harley’s spark plugs, put in a par of Harley Davison (Made by Champion) Golds. She ran fine but, well, something wasn’t quite the same, there was a slight “crispness” missing. I’ve been trying to put my finger on it since I got back; checked everything and in the end decided to try changing the plugs back. Bingo! That was it, I really could not believe what a difference it made.

So off to The Green Spark Plug Company for a brand spank me new pair of NGK Iridiums to suit Harley. Within 48 hours the plugs had arrived and were fitted. Result, a crisper ignition, better fuel consumption and sharper on the go-grip when required, excellent! For the technically curious the plugs are NGK DCPR7EIX.  So what’s the difference? Well, the Iridium plug has a thinner centre electrode giving a stronger spark and better combustion, additionally, cos iridium is harder than other electrode metals it is not so prone to spark erosion and lasts longer, certainly the old plugs pre the H-D Golds were still within tolerance after 15,000 miles. Which means that even if they are a bit more expensive to buy, they are still good value and that’s ok by me!

Also I can’t praise The Green Spark Plug Company enough for their assistance and customer service, usual disclaimer, their web site is worth a look, and their prices are very good as well; http://www.gsparkplug.com/shop

New NGK Iridium at the front, nearly new H-D Gold at the back.

Now prior to this, I would have said a spark plug is a spark plug…I’ve changed my mind now. The right choice for your bike, car or lawnmower can make a huge difference. I can almost hear Vifferman saying told you so!

Oh, nearly forgot…the weather was superb yesterday, lovely early autumn sunshine that almost caressed you with it’s softness, so I treated myself to a blast up the ’30 to Okehampton and a more leisurely trundle back to Cornwall on the ‘Old Road’, also known as the West Devon Drive. Just what I needed!

Today the weather is *issing down, so seems good to read the Sunday papers by the log fire whilst the roast cooks, the red wine breathes and Jethro Tull plays on…I might even have a little snooze later!!!

Chasing Shadows on the Run. Ride On!

Dookes

Hello again folks!

Sorry about the delay in posting anything new, but to be honest there’s not much to report.
Except that Mr & Mrs Dookes became Great Aunt and Uncle again recently to two arrivals for nieces and nephews! Big congrats to Kerenza and Richard for little Bella; and also Caroline and Shane for little Tristan, love to you all.

Like pretty much the rest of the country, the weather here in Cornwall has been…..well, not very good, unless you are a duck, or sell umbrellas for a living! No weather at all for much in the way of ride-outs, so Harley and I have had to be content with the odd commute.

For those of us that ply our trade in the agricultural sector the weather is nothing short of a disaster. The dry spell in March and April screwed the winter crops at the flowering stage and as we all know it’s never stopped raining since = poor yields, even poorer quality and worse of all a shortage of malting barley for beer! C’est très mal! As my French friends say.

At the grain store my team are plugging away trying to make some kind of sense of the awful stuff that the farmers are throwing at us, talk about silk purses and pigs ears! It never ceases to amuse me how many of the growers moan like hell at the charges that their products incur as we try by working long noisy hours to turn it into saleable grain…Mind you it does get a little hard to feel great sympathy when the biggest moaners then drive off in a Range Rover Sport! There are however, some really hard working farmers out there, some of whom I count as friends, who’s hard work is being reduced to unsaleable mush and who deserve respect cos they just take it on the chin and get on with life! Hang in there Martin, John and Anglian Andrew, you guys are OK!

Anyway enough of the soap box, here is Harley hiding from the Cornish Sunshine at lunchtime today…it wasn’t raining when I rode to the store this morning!

The ride home was actually OK, holiday traffic jams all gone and no rain either!
Good news at Dookes Towers this evening; Mrs Dookes has cooked a full blown Indian meal, excellent! Sorry no menu details, but even the onion bhajees were homemade and the curry was HOT!

Want something throbbing between you legs?
Ride a V twin!

Dookes

OK, I spoke too soon….the weather was great for a week, now it’s Standard British Summer, you know, cr*p!

Still, Harley and I got out for a ride on Saturday before the rain set in, I even had time to cut the grass at Dookes H.Q. when we got back…and that takes over an hour!

Did you watch the Olympics on Saturday night? Three athletics Golds in under an hour! Brilliant!

I spent last Sunday driving a miniature steam train at a local visitor attraction here in Cornwall that is owned by a good friend of mine. Unfortunately the day was largely spent diving in and out of heavy showers, part of the line was a little flooded but it didn’t stop us having fun!

This is the little engine, between the rain. For those of you who want the technical details, it’s a 0-6-0 Romulus design in 7 1/4 inch gauge, coal fired and three years old. The track is a mile long circuit that takes about six minutes to go round. It’s at a place called Hidden Valley Adventure Park, click here for the link. It’s a great place for family’s to visit, a bit random and quirky, but good fun for everyone.

Grease top? A type of hat worn by steam locomotive crews.

I’m a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride!

Dookes

It’s been a week of fantastic weather here in Cornwall, which Harley and I have been happy to enjoy! The commute to and from work across Bodmin Moor has been an absolute pleasure.

Mind you the number of summer visitors, Emmetts in these parts, has been steadily growing making the return journey a tad tedious, do these people drive as badly at home????

Today I popped Harley back into Thor Motorcycles, near Bodmin.

When Colin and his crew gave her the post trip check last week they made some adjustments to the primary drive sprockets and chain. During this week I thought that I could detect a slight vibration from the area of the primary drive, so hence the visit to check it out. “What is he on about?” I hear the four cylinder bikers cry! “V twins always vibrate!” True words cos V twins do, but hey I’m a little fussy, she wasn’t vibrating right, if you know what I mean!

Colin was as fantastic as ever; as soon as we arrived Harley was whisked into the workshop and up onto a bike bench then Steve set to on her drive train. Becky made me a cup of tea as I settled to wait, what excellent service! Soon Colin invited me into the workshop to have a look at the work. He had found that the clutch hub had a small irregularity, it was running about seven one thousandths of an inch eccentric, yes imperial measurements, American engineers still use feet and inches, thank goodness! Now 7 thou, is about the distance a gnats bum cheeks flex when it passes wind, like not much at all…. After much debate and head scratching we could find no obvious sign of damage and concluded that the hub must have been slightly incorrectly machined when manufactured by H-D, unusual. As we did not have a new part to hand, this was Saturday afternoon as well, we decided to refit the hub and to replace it in the not too distant future when we have another exciting job planned! Whilst we had the drive case off, I got Colin to fit a new primary drive chain, the original has done 26000 miles and it seemed sensible whilst the case was apart. Watch this space for details about the next job we will be doing…..

Anyway, this is picture for you folks who like me have gotta know how things work.

To the left is the engine drive shaft and compensator sprocket. In the middle is the primary drive chain with it’s white adjuster. The large round object to the right is the clutch assembly, the hub is hidden inside this. To the top right is the starter motor shaft, whilst just visible to the extreme lower right can be glimpsed the final drive belt to the rear wheel. Beautiful, isn’t it?!

Anyway, Steve soon had her back together. Riding home she felt better, not quite perfect yet, but much better. So thanks Colin and crew, nice to know you look after us so well! See you soon for six times the fun!

Lids on, let’s ride!
Dookes

Finally it looks like summer may have arrived in Cornwall, the sun has come out after ten weeks of rain!

I picked Harley up from her post tour service late on Friday afternoon and promptly set off for one of my favourite events that the Plymouth HoG Chapter hold each summer, the Looe Fish and Chips Ride.

As I was running a little late I headed off to the rendezvous point at Trerulefoot, Bodmin Chris and Bikerpatch Phil were already there. It wasn’t long before others started to arrive and we soon had about twenty bikes gathered together.

Head Road Captain Derek led us off towards Looe and the Coddy Shack for supper of fish and chips. The Coddy Shack is actually a few miles outside Looe so after our meal we started up again and rode into the town for a tour of the narrow streets and ice cream, another Chapter tradition. Very good it was too!

After ice cream it was time for a bomb burst as we all set off for home in different directions, massive thanks to Judith for the impeccable organisation as always.

Ride on V twins!

Dookes